The department officially made the ask to the city Thursday, requesting support to amend its list of services to add the drug as one it can administer.

According to new fire Chief Jeff Slager, the move comes as fire departments are essentially caught in the middle of the new opioid crisis and facing the potential for exposure to the drugs themselves.

“As a community, we are experiencing some of the challenges that come along with the opioid epidemic, so we do have to put things in place,” Slager said.

On the one hand, paramedics are medical professionals who have access to a wide variety of medications they can administer, including naloxone. Police can also carry the drug, and are covered by provincial Good Samaritan laws if they administer naloxone because they don’t offer medical services, much like the average person on the street.

But fire departments, because they have some medical training but aren’t paramedics, would fall in the middle.

“It just this gives you all three emergency services in the City of Woodstock now part of the program and able to administer it, whatever the situation that comes,” Slager said.

There haven’t been any specific incidents in which firefighters have needed to administer the drug but haven’t been able to do so, and no incidents to date in which firefighters have been exposed to opioids, but they have been on scene when naloxone has been administered by paramedics.

Slager said having the naloxone – also known by its brand name, Narcan – is an extra safety measure firefighters can take for residents and themselves. The drug temporarily halts the effects of opioid drugs and can help restore breathing during an overdose.

“We look at it as protection for our firefighters, so if they do wind up with an accidental exposure during their duties, their coworker can administer a lifesaving dose without having to worry about the legal ramifications,” he said, noting that exposure might come in the course of a fire investigation when firefighters don’t always know what is inside the home.

The department had to ask council’s approval to add it as an “approved service.” Under the city’s fire service bylaw, there is an approved list of medical services the department can provide, and having council approve the addition is a provincial requirement to undergo the training. The department also has to enter into an agreement with Southwestern public health

It’s “a lot of paperwork,” Slager said with a smile.

The department is set to do the naloxone training next month, and anticipates naloxone will be on all trucks by mid-September, Slager anticipates.

The move is not unique across the province. London, Kitchener and departments in the Ottawa area, among others, have already made moves to carry naloxone on fire trucks in the past year as concerns grow about the opioid crisis in Canada and the possibility that first responders could be accidentally exposed to the potent drugs.

The Ontario Naloxone Program was expanded to include police and firefighters in December 2017.

“It is very exciting. We are very thankful that council has supported us,” Slager said.